butoh

This one-day workshop introduces Butoh Fu or Butoh Notation, based on the Hijikata method created by Tatsumi Hijikata, one of the founders of Butoh and is taught by butoh master Yukio Waguri.

Time: 10am – 5pm, with a break for lunch
Date: Wednesday 30 January 2013
Venue: The Dance Studio at Rimbun Dahan
Fees: RM100 per person (limited to 20 participants), open to MyDance Alliance members only and by registration only.

About the Workshop

This workshop investigates the relationship between dance, the body, and possession. It trains the student to explore the importance of walking in Butoh, the physical body as a medium, a person who passes through, what is craziness, the crisis of the mind and the body, and the philosophies of Butoh. From the workshop, the students will investigate the power of transformation as a fundamental element of Butoh, also exploring the different body conditions from heaviness to lightness, from compression to expansion, and the relationship between space and time that is made by the body’s condition.

About Yukio Waguri

Born in Tokyo in 1952, Yukio Waguri was the disciple and main male dancer at Tatsumi Hijikata’s Asbestos-kan during 1972-1978. From this period he kept notes of the words Hijikata spoke while choreographing. These words are called “Butoh-fu”, a unique method for choreography. Waguri has made his own interpretation of these words and continues to use them as a method for his own choreographies and teaching. Over the past 34 years he has taught and choreographed around the world. He is the Artistic Director of the Kohzensha Butoh Company. When choreographing and teaching, his focus is on transforming oneself to become imagery rather than depicting this through movement. His rigid and flexible body, a good sharpness of beautiful model, and delicacy nuance, is able to express his dance delicately. The variety of the dance, mainly based on the change of the subject, shows the possibilities of the future of dance. In addition, to the physical imagery roused through attention to the words of the unique Butoh Fu Hijikata lineage, Waguri also concentrates on collaborations with the artist in other genres.

In 1998, Waguri published the CD-ROM of Butoh Kaden, which has been viewed worldwide and has received much interest from butoh dance scholars and practitioners as it unveils the essence of Hijikata’s Butoh notation and choreographic methods, and provides an opportunity to reevaluate Hijikata’s method.

Register for the Workshop

Individuals may join MyDance Alliance on the day of the workshop at the venue. Membership for MyDance Alliance is RM 50 regular, and RM 20 student, for one year, and entitles you to free entrance to Dancebox events, discounts to workshops and performances and other benefits. For more information about membership, see http://www.mydancealliance.org/become-a-member.html

Korean artist Natalie Kim Kyungmi began to explore her interests in contemporary dance during a stay in Malaysia in 2010. She performed in Dancing in Place in August 2010, followed by a brief mentorship at Rimbun Dahan with Japanese-Australian butoh dancer Yumi Umiumare and an appearance at the Melaka Art & Performance (MAP) Festival in November 2010. Natalie moved back to Korea in 2011.

Here Natalie discusses her experience of the mentorship and the festival, accompanied by photos by Anthony Pelchen.

“Just before the festival, I was privileged to have a personal mentoring workshop with Yumi, supported by Rimbun Dahan. We started the workshop by previewing my work and it was a truly valuable and thought-provoking process with lots of mutual brainstorming and discussion. Her methodology was inspiring as she never imposed any answers or theory but just threw questions at me to look into and explore. Her tremendous mentoring helped me focus on natural strength and emotion while understanding the virtues of dance performance.

Personally we’ve became very close friends with extra gin and tonic sessions every night during festival and her enthusiastic mentoring has never had a break since the festival till now!”

“Here I am performing ‘Mapping’ with Agung Gunawan (Indonesia) in one of the site-specific performances around Melaka town.

Each performer performed twice a day in different sites, either solo or in collaboration. I was lucky to get to perform with performers from diverse backgrounds such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Australia and Indonesia. It was a valuable learning collaboration process, seeing how my emotion and body could react and tune into all the different energies and movements, and, finally, with the audience.”

“Before the festival, I had come across news about a women executed in public in Iran by stoning to death. This piece was dedicated to her and all women who are still oppressed in many ways. It also reflects my personal experiences encountering different cultures which have different values and perceptions of gender.”

“Here I am performing my solo ‘Prophecy’, as part of the Cerita Pendek (Short Works) program. In this performance dance work I explore the hope of transformation across the passage of time.”

“This picture, and the one at the top left of this page, shows Eulogy for the Living, the group performance at the finale of the festival. I am with with Ikko (Japan), Agung (Indonesia) and Tho (Laos-France).

The process of creating this work was very inspiring as each performer had his or her own solo, yet needed to tune into others’ independent parts in an improvisational way until the final group encounter. During every rehearsal there was lots of discussion and experimentation to make this finale a ‘community-like’ performance.”

Australian-based Japanese choreographer/performer YumiUmiumare undertook a short residency at Rimbun Dahan in 2010, working with and mentoring performer Natalie Kim Kyungmi, towards a solo work for the Melaka Art+Performance Festival. Yumi also conducted a workshop on 21 November 2010 at The Annexe Central Market.

Yumi is at the forefront of Butoh fusion in Australia, with work across genres, including ‘Butoh Cabaret’. She works internationally and performed first in Australia in the early 90’s with Tokyo Butoh company DaiRakudakan. She has had a commitment to teaching and mentoring for over a decade, initiating with Tony Yap the Beyond Butoh series of annual showings in Melbourne.